A Parent's Guide to Anime

Welcome to A Parent's Guide to Anime!

This page is meant as a resource for parents to aid them in finding anime that is suitable for children. Many parents are uncertain whether they should view anime before their children see it. Titles and even reviews often do not provide enough information concerning the content of the video. As Animerica Magazine recently pointed out, one of the things that draws western audiences to anime is honest treatment of what our societies generally refuse to deal with -- the reality of sex and gender roles, the human ways of creating and dealing with violence.

We hope this page will help other parents to select anime for their children. As a cultural ambassador, anime is a portrait of the differences between Japanese and western society and family life -- but also a portrait of the similarities. It is our firm belief that children can only benefit from an honest portrayal of human nature and social issues. However, we realize that -- as with any art form -- some anime is intended for mature audiences only. We have created A Parent's Guide to Anime with this in mind.

Please note that we do not advocate censorship. It reflects the interest of parents working together to empower themselves as parents. Ultimately, it is the parent's responsibility to determine what is, and more importantly -- what is not appropriate for their children.

For your convenience, A Parent's Guide to Anime uses a simple, color-coded rating scheme. However, we believe that family decisions regarding the suitability of any particular video require more detailed information, which we provide in the substantive reviews. The reviews can provide information to help you decide whether to share a given anime video with your family.